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 The disease, which emerged in China last year and has killed over a
million people worldwide, is spreading in most parts of the United
Kingdom, whose official death toll of 43,155 is the highest in
Europe.
Anger, though, is rising over the economic, social and health costs
of the biggest curtailment of freedoms since wartime: one former
government adviser warned some people would have trouble clothing
their children soon.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will address parliament at around 1030
GMT: he is expected to announce changes to the government's
patchwork of three-tier local lockdowns.
London will move to "high" alert level from "medium" at midnight on
Friday, The Times reported.
"It is my expectation that the government will today announce that
London will shortly be moving into tier 2 or the high alert level of
restrictions," added mayor Sadiq Khan, saying nobody wanted the
measures but action had to come fast.
"I must warn Londoners: We've got a difficult winter ahead."
In the capital, a global financial centre rivalled only by New York,
11 boroughs are seeing more than 100 new cases a week per 100,000
people. The worst hit areas are Richmond, Hackney, the City of
London, Ealing, Redbridge and Harrow.
'PEOPLE NOT COPING'
Manchester, the largest city in northern England, could also move to
"very high" from "high".
Johnson, who won a landslide election in December, says his
government is fighting a war against the virus and that some
sacrifices are necessary to save lives.
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But opponents say the government was too slow to act when the virus first
struck, failed to protect the elderly in care homes, and bungled the testing
system.
In areas in the high alert level, socialising outside households or support
bubbles is not allowed indoors though work can continue and schools continue to
operate.
The "very high" alert level forbids socialising, forces pubs and bars to close
and prohibits travel outside the area.
The government's former homelessness adviser Louise Casey said the United
Kingdom faces a "period of destitution" in which families "can't put shoes on"
children.
"Are we actually asking people in places like Liverpool to go out and prostitute
themselves, so that they could put food on the table?" Louise Casey told the
BBC.
Liverpool is already in the highest-risk tier.
"There's this sense from Downing Street and from Westminster that people will
make do. Well, they weren't coping before COVID," Casey added.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Sarah Young; Editing by Paul Sandle and
Andrew Cawthorne)
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